Helike is about 4 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 20,540,000 km in 601.402 Earth days, at an inclination of 155° to the ecliptic (156° to Jupiter's equator), with an orbital eccentricity of 0.1375.

It was named in March 2005 after Helike, one of the nymphs that nurtured Zeus (Jupiter) in his infancy on Crete.[4]

Helike belongs to the Ananke group, retrograde non-spherical moons which orbit Jupiter between 19,300,000 and 22,700,000 km, at inclinations of about 150°.